Breaking Points
by The Emerald Cat
Summary: Nights are long and tiring, the time when harsh emotions are most likely to come out and dance. But also the worst time for them to do so.
1. How Long Aching Nights Last

"I don't think it's appropriate, Lukas."

Lukas sighed, rolled his eyes, and prepared himself for another long night.

"Jesse, I'm just trying to be accurate," he said, his usual reply.

Jesse glared at him, and all but threw the manuscript onto the desk "Look, I'm not all that crazy about Aiden or his actions either, but we can't just slander his name like this. You saw that letter- whether I decide to reunite with him or not, he's trying to better himself."

_Doesn't mean he'll succeed_, the bitter part of his mind whispered, the past trying to resurface in his mind. "Maybe he is, but that doesn't mean we should _lie_ about his past actions."

"Why? It wouldn't be the first time you've done it," Jesse grumbled, standing up from the chair and crossing his arms, cutting off Lukas by saying- "Redstonia? Didn't happen like that. Boom Town? No big showdown. The lapis? Complete _bullshit_, we got our diamond- we were just there for the show, and Petra was just being a petty bitch. The weapon I used? _Not_ a god damn pickax."

"Might I remind you who's idea that last edit was, thanks to _your_ indecisive mind?" Lukas snapped at Jesse, not caring about how he winced or how he was failing to keep his fingers from clenching as he pressed himself up from his chair. "Those were all _minor_ things anyways. Aiden's actions? A big deal."

"And you're not going to even change his name or anything?" Jesse asked, glare growing in force as his body tensed.

"We didn't change anyone else's names, why his?" Lukas replied, and looked away from Jesse's glare.

"Because this could affect his lives! Everyone else knows we're heroes and the Order lied, and everyone can _see_ that Ivor's redeemed himself. But Aiden? Aiden doesn't get that liberty! He's not in Beacontown!"

"He's not in Beacontown for good reas- oh come on-" he whipped around to return Jesse's heated glare- "don't tell me you just forgot that he burned a city to the ground."

"Forget?" Jesse let out a broken, forced laugh. "How the hell could I forget? I still have nightmares about that shit! I'm still _terrified of the ocean_ because of what he did! But unlike what you are doing, I-" he jabbed Lukas in the chest with an accusatory finger- "at least have the decency to treat him like a _human being_ who has the right to change. You are just sitting here all petty and holding a grudge!"

"It's HIS fault he did those things Jesse, HE can pay the god damn consequences! Stop feeling so god damn sympathetic!" His blood was pounding and roaring in his ears, and he snapped and turned and started to storm off. "I don't want to talk about this any more!"

With how loud his blood was roaring and his anger was churning, he didn't think he could hear anything else.

Not until Jesse screamed "YOU'RE JUST LIKE SOREN!"

And everything went from burning to frozen.

And memories swarmed into resurfacing, pulsing and racing to the front of his mind-

_"I hate that bastard, he's such a coward-"_

_"He ran away, he left us-"_

_"No, he didn't take any responsibility Lukas-"_

_"Lukas, you can't understand how much I hate him-"_

_"I may not always agree with them, but at least they're not Soren-"_

_**"You mean Soren, the worst piece of shit in ****existence****?"**_

Jesse's words after that pounded him.

"YOU NEVER TAKE _ANY_ RESPONSIBILITIES FOR YOUR ACTIONS LUKAS, YOU NEVER HAD! YOU HOLD THESE PETTY-ASS GRUDGES THAT YOU NEVER LET GO OF, YOU HOLD NO GOD DAMN RESPECT FOR ANYONE NO MATTER HOW MUCH THEY AVOID YOU OR APOLOGIZE, AND WHEN YOU DO FACE A PROBLEM, YOU _RUN AWAY_! YOU RUN AWAY LIKE A GOD DAMN COWARD, LIKE YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO 'TRUST' SOMEONE WHO DOES THAT? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TREAT SOMEONE AS A PERSON, WHEN YOU HAVE NO RESPECT FOR ANYONE ELSE? HO- h- how-"

Wrathful screamed devolved into choked sobs.

He couldn't breath, the words wrapping around him and choking him and making everything except the hot wetness pricking at his eyes seem frozen.

"You can't even look at me now, _coward_."

And those last words stun.

Jesse said nothing else, and all Lukas was left with was the footsteps that echoed as they pounded against the iron floors, and the distant sounds of crying.

And then Lukas was left alone.

With the knowledge of failure crushing his chest, guilt crawling all over his body and his blood and up his throat, and Jesse's hatred burning and freezing all at once-

Jesse had compared him to Soren.

The man Jesse hated the most.

And that meant Jesse hated Lukas.

_Jesse hated him_.

No one was witness to him breaking into tears in the hallway of the Order of the Stone, alone.


	2. Straw that Broke the Camel's Back

Aiden stared at out the doorway, directly at Jesse.

Jesse looked back at him, the moon faintly visible just behind his head.

"...Can I come in?" Jesse asked, in an oddly calm voice.

Aiden nodded, unable to form words, and stepped back to let him in. He closed the door, then clicked on a lamp so that soft light bathed the room.

Heavy silence fell.

This wasn't how Aiden had expected to see Jesse again.

Not when Aiden had coal stains smeared all over his skin and clothes, and sweat caused his hair to stick to his forehead.

Not when Jesse's eyes were red, as he'd spent awhile crying.

Aiden's train of thought and the silence were broken when Jesse sharply inhaled, and looked up at him, his breathing shaky.

"I need to ask you something," he said in a shaking voice, and he gulped. "If... if that's okay with you."

Aiden wasn't sure what his expectations had been, but they were gone now.

"Uh, sure," he said, leaning against the wall as he tried to stop his racing heart. "It's the least I can do."

Jesse breathed in.

Then he breathed out.

"...It's about Sky City, and- well... what happened before it."

Aiden tensed.

Jesse rubbed at his arms, eyes now geared towards the ground.

"Did... Lukas just leave you guys?"

Aiden's heart stopped.

He opened his mouth, tried to force words past the lump choking his throat, to breath despite the tightness of his chest, to do something as simple as look away from Jesse's piercing gaze.

But he couldn't do any of that.

He was frozen in place.

Jesse stared at him, his eyes widening as if in slow motion, and horror slowly crept over his face.

"He did, didn't he?" he whispered, voice on the verge of cracking.

That snapped Aiden out of his stupor, and he spat out, "Yeah, but it was _both_ of our faults."

Jesse looked at him, and his shining eyes and shaking body made something inside Aiden crack, and the words spilled out of his mouth uncontrollably.

"He- he just left. He left without a word- he just- he said he was gonna stay. He said that after the Storm, he wouldn't leave. That he'd be the leader we needed. And then- and then one day, he was just gone. And- and yeah, maybe he was slow missing more of his things, maybe he was out of the house more, but he could've at least told us he was leaving. But he didn't! One morning he was just gone! And when I went and found him, anxious and terrified over what could've happened to him? 'Oh, I moved out'. So casually, as if he hadn't just _left us_, and without A DAMN WORD!"

His heart thudded against his chest, blood roared in his ears, fingernails dug into his skin from clenched fists, and a voice in his mind told him to stop being so angry, but the words kept spilling and flooding out.

"And I KNOW I overreacted, I _know_ I was the one who destroyed a city, I KNOW I screwed up! BUT he just- he just was GONE. NO heads up, no GOODBYE, HE JUST LEFT! HE SWORE HE'D STAY, AND THEN HE ABANDONED US! WITH ONLY A HALF-ASSED APOLOGY WHEN I TOLD HIM HOW MUCH HE'D HURT ME! A HALF-FELT SORRY? THAT DOESN'T CHANGE THAT YOU _ABANDONED_ US! HE JUST- HE WAS JUST- HE WAS JUST _GONE_! HE- He- he- he just-"

Words fumbled into incoherence, boiling blood made eyes burn and body shake, face wet and his chest screamed, and he barely raised a shuddering hand to his face.

"...I messed up," Aiden whispered, voice hoarse and scratching against the choked lump in his throat. "I know that, I know. But he hurt me, and- and I can't leave that behind." He let out a forced, bitter laugh. "But no, forget it. I'm being stupid. H-he's probably changed, anyways."

Quiet, breathing hot as it passed through the tightness of his chest and throat.

But the boiling rage soon fizzled, replaced instead by a numb ache.

An ache that twinged as he heard a half-choked sob.

He looked up, and through blurred vision, saw Jesse's hand over his face.

The aching burned at his skin, gnawing at his chest and stomach.

A shaking gulp. "I don't think he _has_ changed," Jesse said, looking up to reveal his face shining with tears.

That was when Aiden realized why Jesse was here, asking about Lukas, with eyes so red, and without his friends.

And the ache gnawing at his body grew only worse.


End file.
